Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stake holders. It is a continuous process throughout a project. A requirement is a capability to which a project outcome (product or service) should conform.
Requirements governing the development of various types of projects have grown as the complexity of these projects has increased. Any heterogeneous system (e.g., one built from different types of components) can be defined by a set of requirements documents with which the developed product must comply. Such systems exist in many types of manufacturing and product development, such as automotive, military, aerospace, and complex medical systems. Exemplary products may contain such components as computer software programs, computer hardware, semiconductors, mechanical and electrical products, etc. Requirements are often formulated in documents and are partitioned into pieces of text called individual requirements. The requirements are often represented hierarchically.
In requirements management, the refinement and facilitation of requirements are considered in conjunction with the development of a design. The process of requirements specification is an iterative process in which increasingly detailed requirements are produced by the refinement of previously defined requirements. The development of a design generally begins from a set of initial requirements. As the design process progresses, the initial requirements are extended with intermediate design decisions, usually called “derived” requirements. These requirements are added to the whole set of requirements. During the design procedure, further requirements may be elucidated. Managing changes and/or additions to the initial or derived requirements or design often lead to inconsistencies in the requirement and/or design.
Requirements management tools exist, some of which are integrated with design management tools. Two exemplary products are RequisitePro® (available from IBM® Rational® at http://www.ibm.com) and Rational® DOORS® (also available from IBM).
Requirements are managed in text format, and may be linked to one another and/or the design (i.e., traceability). Because the requirements are captured in text, only limited analysis can be done for details within a requirement, and comparing requirements for duplication becomes difficult.